Hello Tony:
Your response, noting an escalation to engineering, is appropriate. In answer to your question, when the mail was dragged and dropped into the local sent folder, (in Thunderbird), the originals stayed around with a big red X and the items shown with a line through them on in the IMAP sent folder. I transferred about 1/2 of them (it is a slow process when the number is so large), I quit the process and left if for a several days. The inbox ones on the IMAP account with the red X on them had disappeared on the Thunderbird host. I presumed all was well, and the limit problem had been resolved. I moved the remainder of them, with the result that the red X was there on the remainder of the IMAP ones. I have not checked back today, but my assumption was that the remainder were gone.
I went to the webmail account, and verified that indeed the status on the webmail account was as reported above.
However, there are complicating factor, perhaps. But first, to provide meaningful context, let me introduce myself. The account we are dealing with is my wife's account, and she is anything but technical. I, on the other hand, do software and hardware design and development on systems that are all over the world, albeit in a marginal market. Not only do I code, but I also do customer service personally. I don't farm it out. Consequently I have many years of experience, so I know a bit about the process.
In this case, one complicating factor is that my wife uses a cellphone, which obviously uses an IMAP type connection to the mail server. I use and have always used a pop server, mostly for lack of trust of the host servers to be honest. In the last years my wife has used her phone to send emails. This resulted in the problem of the overrun Sent folder in the first place. I decided to preserve her sent messages on her desktop computer, so I created an IMAP account on her Desktop computer and synched the SENT folder on the server, and followed the process above. But meanwhile, the consequence was that the phone app (its an Android) stopped syncing mail. It reports that it is busy every time she tries to open it. That was easy for me to figure out: The SENT folder obviously (for some reason beyond my imagination) decided to sync to that pc of sh phone.
I presumed that this problem would go away when the server folders were back to approx. empty. I haven't tried again on her phone, so I don't know the answer to that. However, it might be the phone is somehow locking your server up. I am not entirely sure how IMAP works, but it is possible that IMAP stops some processes if one of the connected devices (like that phone) is in the middle of a transaction.
That is about as much help as I can be at this time. I haven't checked this morning if the problem has magically fixed itself. I will do that once I am finished this reply.
Now that I am far enough down in this message that almost no-one will read it (the average attention span of most people is comparable to a nat), I also note that asking for direct access to the email account is the kind of access I ask for from my clients, and often get it, BUT for Shaw techs to ask for that kind of access is entirely inappropriate. Instead, there should be macros written for the mail host program to generate meaningful transaction and statistical reports that are anonymized to provide tech support all the information they require. Have a word with that bloody company you work. They should set professional standards and provide professional tools to you folks.
Thanks again. The idiot who handled the chat doesn't have a clue. Again, not his fault. Your management need some serious lessons.
